ZAGREB, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Croatian costal city Rijeka launched another tender on Monday for the reconstruction of the ship Galeb used by former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito on his state travels around the world.
The Galeb ship was planned to be one of the attractions of Rijeka when it becomes the European Capital of Culture on January 1, 2020, but the reconstruction will not be completed by then.
So far, Rijeka has received only one bid for the redesign of the ship, and that was by the shipyard "Viktor Lenac", but the bid was not accepted because of the high price.
A new estimate is that the refurbishment of the neglected ship, which has been anchored in Rijeka harbor for years, will cost 35.2 million Croatian kuna (about 5.3 million U.S. dollars), and the ship should be a museum and provide commercial services.
The city of Rijeka will use European funds through the project "Tourism Valorization of Representative Monuments of Rijeka Industrial Heritage" for renovating the ship, and part of the funds will provide the city itself.
The Galeb was built in 1938, and renovated in 1951. Since 1953, the ship has become a sailing residence of President Josip Broz Tito, who visited 18 countries on 14 trips.
Many well-known figures in the world were on the deck of Galeb, including former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev and many Non-aligned Movement Leaders, such as Gamal Abdel Naser, Ahmed Sukarna and Sirimavo Bandaranaic.
The city of Rijeka bought the ship on a public auction in 2009, and since then it has been working hard to rebuild it completely.
